Solange trumps through to the spot just outside the walls. The guards ask the usual "who goes there?" question and then she is allowed into the ancient family rockpile.
Random indicated it was nighttime in Amber. Is that correct? She'll ask the guard what the hour is before going inside.
[If she heads to the castle, she'll see a runner coming pell-mell towards the guardroom.]
She will head into the castle. She follows the runner into the guardroom, curious to hear what's happening.
[Guardroom is in the outer bailey, so there's not much heading in to do...]
The runner reports that the wounded ranger got up and knocked out Wage and ran into the castle, like a madman. Venesch orders the gates sealed, telling Solange of the mad ranger who attacked Prince Julian and was slain by him. He orders the men to put on armor and offers the same to Solange, and a sword.
She accepts them and dons the armor with alacrity.
"Captain Barrell, sound the Tocsin." The fat guard runs off.
Solange blanches slightly, remembering the last time she heard that particular alarm. The guards will have their standing orders concerning what to do if the Tocsin sounds, so there's not much she can do here in the guardroom.
She nods to Venesch and heads toward the Main Hall at a dead run.
Solange is quite the runner, and quickly passes through the closed gates into the castle. The central hall is a scene of focused activity, with many people running through it, each on their own business.
Volume, an assistant to the Steward comes up to her. "Lady Solange, thank the Unicorn! What is the emergency? What do we do?" He's not hysterical, but he's clearly expecting Solange to tell him what to do.
The rest of the hall goes silent as they wait on her instructions.
"A mad ranger attacked Prince Julian," she explains in a voice meant to carry as she looks over the hall. "He then ran into the castle, destination unknown. The castle guard is alerted. Get yourselves to a place of safety, behind a locked door.
"Does anyone know where the queen is?"
Volume looks stricken. "Upstairs. She had an audience with your cousin, Adonis." From his tone, he's at least partially in shock at the idea that Adonis is your cousin. He pauses. "He wouldn't have...done anything, would he?"
Solange doesn't answer, but instead pushes past him and runs up the stairs.
Solange arrives in the receiving room and establishes her bona fides with the understandably suspicious guards. She is announced and admitted to see the Queen and finds Fiona and Merlin, who is armed, with her.
"Solange," Vialle says, sounding relieved. "Do you know what's happening? Is the castle under attack, or is the only threat from within?"
"A mad ranger attacked Julian and then ran into the castle. Venesch sounded the Tocsin. I wanted to make sure you were all right."
Solange's eyes dart around the room as she talks, as if the ranger might suddenly appear from behind the curtain or under the chair. Suddenly they flick back to the queen.
"Only threat, you said. Did you know about it already?"
It is Fiona who answers. "Conner trumped me to tell me that he and Brita are chasing the ranger. They think he's gone to the family wing, to steal Paige's children. Paige and Adonis went to him to help."
Solange executes the perfect double-take at Fiona. "Paige's children?"
"Her twins, by Adonis," Merlin explains breathlessly. "They were sped into being while she travelled." Merlin, like Solange, is scanning the room for threats. Solange notes that he is standing between the Queen and the windows.
"Go help them," Vialle urges. "Fiona and Merlin can protect me, and they may need your help. You rode with the Rangers; you may have learned something that will help."
"Yes, ma'am," Solange blinks, bringing herself back to matters at hand. She hurriedly bows to Vialle and runs from the room toward the family wing at full speed.
Solange dashes pell-mell through the castle, frightened servants and guards scattering in her wake, until she hears the sounds of combat and is able to home in on the chamber where the battle royal is happening.
Conner has to come to a complete stop to concentrate on the Trump. As he makes the connection, some part of his attention is drawn by the alarm bell tolling in the background.
"What is it, Conner?" Fiona asks. Her expression is grim and her hand is up to bring him through.
"The Ranger escaped the infirmary and Brita smelled a rat. She ran off tracking him and bid me spread the alarm." Conner tells her. "It seems someone near a bell has spared me the trouble. I'm off to find Brita. Will you come through?" He asks ready to offer his hand.
Fiona shakes her head. "I must remain with the Queen. But Paige and Adonis are here. Take them, and contact me when you can." She adds to someone out of Conner's immediate view, "Conner and Brita are en route."
The moment Paige's hand is placed in his own, Conner pulls them both through and immediately drops the Trump contact. "This way." Conner runs down the hall he last saw Brita heading down and putting two and three together to get 4.98 most likely ends up following Paige's rush towards her children.
Adonis comes through, recognises that Connor is too deeply immersed in psychic activity for mundane courtesy, and instead looks around for that one essential in any castle in springtime - a fire. [Is there one nearby, in a side room, perhaps?]
Adonis is in a hallway and the doors to the chambers are all closed. There is no fireplace immediately evident in the hallway.
[OOC: there are likely to be fires in some of the bedchambers. If you go looking for fires you will find one, but it will take a little time. Paige and Conner will know this.]
[Adonis does not know what's behind closed doors and he's not about to charge off by himself in a place he does not know, especially one so large and rambling. Neither does he want to slow up Conner and Paige, so he follows their lead. But please note that he will be looking out for fire on the way - he regards it as an essential in the sort of fighting he suspects will come.]
Well as already stated, Conner is charging after Brita and seeing the worried state of Paige intuits that heading for the children is likely the right course of action and off he goes.
Paige pays no attention to either of the men, pulling off her heels as she runs. Her eyes scan the hall for obvious signs that the Ranger has passed this way, but doesn't stop long enough to truly see anything. The shoes left behind on a sidetable in the hall, she hesitates long enough to reach beneath the hem of her skirt and produces a kris which she reverses in a knife fighter hold. The wavy blade lying against her forearm, she begins the chase again.
Adonis doesn't know where to go so he stays one step behind the leader. He's still on the lookout for a lit flame of any kind. [The following presumes he doesn't find this.]
Before they arrive in the part of the family quarters where Paige's quarters lie, Paige, Conner, and Adonis hear Brita's enraged screams and answering angry, half-human noises of pain and rage. When they round the corner, a bloody scene awaits.
Brita is facing down two of the Green monsters, one of whom was obviously Winter before something snapped her neck like a dry twig. The other was probably Eve before the Green took her. Brita has dealt them both more mortal wounds, and torn off one of Winter's arms, which has crawled back and is grasping her leg. There's a lot of blood on Brita, including what are probably some bite marks. Not all of it looks human.
Three other figures are also attacking Brita. One is in the garb of a ranger. The others are young adolescents from the look of them: a boy and a girl. Twins.
[Monica, go ahead and run Brita through the fight, remembering that she is berserk.]
[Weelll. Brita always seems to jump in feet first - farthest point from her brain...]
Adonis steps sideways to leave Paige's line of advance uncluttered, beckoning with his free hand. "Children, come to Pater!" His voice is grave, commanding, but with an undertone of kindness.
At the sound of his voice, all of Brita's foes turn towards Adonis, and, with burning green eyes staring directly at him, advance towards him.
Brita is seeing everything in full Violent Red. She is ignoring the arm on her leg except to use it as extra mass as she kicks out at the Enemy. She slashes like a Wild Beast - Rending, Raging, Reveling in the Blood, both of her Enemies and Her Own. Her Nose if Flared - Drinking in the Scent of Death and Destruction. Her Focus is Winter and Eve. She instinctually use the walls and hall to limit the Twins' accessability to the Fight. The Ranger she ignores completely.
Winter goes down, her leg broken by a two-handed blow from Brita. Her broken leg and her remaining arm continue clawing at Brita. Eve is trying to go through Brita, but she's not interested in Brita and the door the way she was a few moments ago.
Paige's momentum never stops even as the look on her face becomes one of horror and shock. She attempts to wrap herself about Brooke with a flying tackle, tumbling both of them to the floor.
"Stop this, Brooke! Stop!" she cries. "It's Mama! I'm here! It's going to be all right. Please, stop honey." Her voice breaks as the sobs wrack her body, but she pulls her daughter closer, ignoring any bites or scratches. "I'll save you, I promise."
Paige grabs her daughter like a lifeguard grabs a drowning person: from behind and giving her no way to use her arms or legs (or teeth) against her rescuer.
As Paige holds her, the girl's hair begins to wave and move with no wind. It looks wrong.
Adonis gives no sign that he's either disgusted or upset at what he sees.
After all his time in Castle Clarissa one would think Conner would be used to horrific creatures and pitched chaos. Revulsion over what was done to the twins warred with concern for his sister. "More time, need more time." Conner murmurs to himself and slips a silver pocketwatch out of his jacket. The hands of this clock tick slowly, very slowly and it is this he focuses upon as his bends his will to the task. Over the warriors of Green Conner lays down a thick blanket of sluggish time. He deearly would have loved to spared his sister from the field but they seemed to close. At least she would move no slower than her enemies.
Conner isn't sure how long it will last, but he managed to get everyone except himself. He's got an edge, but not a huge one.
Brooke's hair begins to writhe and, each strand moving independently, Paige finds herself under attack. They are small, and sharply pointed, and while at first they are merely annoying, Paige notices that they are beginning to heat up.
Paige also notices that her arm is becoming uncomfortable where she's holding the girl.
Breeze, Brooke, Leif, Winter, and Ivy all speak in unison, in an unfamiliar (to everyone but Adonis!) voice. "Greetings, son of my daughter. These are mine."
Adonis wrinkles his nose in distaste but something in the way he looks at Breeze seems a little thoughtful. Perhaps there's a spark of recognition in his eye.
"Yours? F**k you, bi**h! These are my MINE!" Paige screams. She begins to build an image in her mind, like visualizing a Trump before she paints it, but the Primal Image, the Pattern that burned itself into her soul over a century ago. Willing the image stronger, the lines brighter, the blue flames licking at her thoughts.
[Summer - Energy]
The power rises through her, the Pattern that she has always been a part of, that has always been a part of her. It burns with the flame she has not felt in Amber since before The Sundering.
The attacks on Paige become less aggressive, but do not stop.
Breeze and Leif stagger, but do not fall.
"Does everyone in this family have a freakishly powerful grandmother?" Conner grimly mutters to himself. The pocketwatch is stashed back in his waistcoat and with his other hand he pulls forth what looks like a metallic pen. A flick of his wrist shows it to be a telescoping pointer now doing double duty as a magic wand, a focus for space within space.
Dragging the pointer down Conner attempts to Part the Veil. The other end of the tear should open over a particularly deep portion of the seas around Amber that Conner knows well from his Navy years.
Conner starts to Part The Veil, but as he begins, things change suddenly and he finds that he can't make it work. The Parting closes behind his pointer as quickly as he opens it.
With her foes distracted, the enraged berserker manages to deliver a series of crippling blows to her opponent. Ivy and the remains of Winter fight on, ignoring the damage. It's almost harder to fight them, because the parts Brita hits don't stop. The red haze keeps her from dwelling too much on that.
Solange arrives at the open door and observes a scene of horror. The room is covered in blood. Two bodies, wounded beyond mortal wounds, attack Brita, while Paige wrestles on the ground with a naked girl. A boy and Ranger Breeze are standing, looking as if they've been hit by someone. Conner is doing something with a pointer that seems unnatural, and Adonis stands near the door. There is a banked fire in the fireplace and other amenities of a room recently converted from a study to a nursery. Before Solange can react, Adonis speaks.
Adonis addresses the room in general rather than any specific person, sneering, "You use the possessive case? That is poor grammar, Grandmother, unless you seek to make them your slaves and I will not have that. In either case it is the poorest of etiquette, as an unbidden guest within another woman's house.
"You will not get what you want by main force. These three are the fruit of my loins and they belong to no one but themselves. I understand you have grievances but this is not the way to address them."
As he's been speaking, he has taken on his aspect and now it fills the room. His eyes burn with a dark fire and his voice gains an aura of command seemingly beyond his apparent 17 years. "Release these children now and we will negotiate." Everyone can hear the unspoken 'or else' at the end of the sentence.
[The Dragon (Reversed) Blind Fury (Most Appropriate. Card Draw. EVAR.)]
The scream of rage that issues from the five possessed bodies is primal, uncanny, and almost deafening. The possessed people all drop to the ground like ragdolls dropped for some more interesting toy. Streams of green energy run from them to a rapidly turning ball that forms hanging over Leif's unmoving form. The ball of green power darts over to Adonis and engulfs his head. Those closest to him may notice that it has the appearance of having scales, just for a moment, before it disappears.
Adonis jerks as if he has taken a strong electric shock. He speaks, and it's as if he were struggling to form words. The voice is the same as that issued by the others. "If I cannot have them. I'll have you!" A green glow comes from his eyes and mouth, alternating with the dark fire seen before.
It's unclear to anyone which being is winning the struggle for control.
Conner takes a moment to savor the blind panic welling up inside up him before springing into action. "Restrain him!" He calls to Solange and pointing at Adonis. "Quickly! Paige, whatever you did, focus it on him."
Solange spares a concerned glance for Paige, then jumps to position herself behind Adonis. She pulls his arms behind his back and holds them tightly.
With that Conner leaps over to Brita's side. "Sister!" He calls forth in his finest herald's voice. "It's your brother. Come back to us, sister. Quench your rage and return to us." Conner hopes desperately that his voice can snap Brita from the berzergang like it did at Heather Vale. If they are to hold Adonis at bay, they will need both her strength and her mind.
"Paige, do you have a trump of Adonis?" Solange calls out.
Having no Enemy to Rend before her, Brita wheels at the sounds of new voices. She steps forward to attack... but something calls to an icy Silver Flame within the Red of her Beserker. The Silver outlines the Red before her, forming into the shape of her Brother, and it spreads its calming ice outward from His Form and His Voice...
She shakes free of the Beserker to find herself gripping Conner's upper arms... hard, as if she had meant to hurl him away. [It will take Brita a bit to assess the situation.]
Paige spares no moment to recognize either of her cousins' attempts at getting her attention, she was fully focused on the Pattern, it's tracery filling her conciousness, her mind numb to her body's protests. She calls out, her voice edged with pain that has no visible source, "Pattern. Fight her with Pattern."
She rotates her own Primal Image and imagines it as a layer over their surroundings, like a warm blanket or a mother's kiss to frighten away the nightmares of her children.
His body shuddering, the black fires seems to squeeze the green from Adonis' eyes and they fix on Paige. He seems about to speak when hidden, unhuman eyelids pass across his eyes from side to side. In the blink of a nictating membrane, the green fire is back. Forked tongue emerges from a tortured mouth as a voice, not Adonis', chants...something, perhaps a spell...
"There's the stillness of death on a deathly unliving sea, when the Eve-bitten apple returned to destroy the tree. Incestuous ancestry..."
The voice strangles as hands clench on erupting talons and the balled fists cover the green fire of the eyes. They fall to reveal Adonis' own dark fires again and again his own voice speaks in prayer...
"...there's dragons and beasties out there in the night..."
Hands, once again clawless, reach for Connor, beseeching aid, but as the first person reaches to touch [assuming anyone tries to] the green light flashes again and scales appear on Adonis' arms as the hideous voice chants a vicious, viperine cadence...
"I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines - I will call in the Jungle..."
Scaled hands rise to cover a scaled face, as if hiding from the horror. Alternating waves of faintly etched scales pass over bare skin. It is impossible to say who is uppermost but it is Adonis who groans once more...
"Foolish Dragon! I pity you."
The internal battle playing inside Adonis fades and the clean and beautiful youth rests back in Solange's arms. His eyes and his form are his own. While he looks as if he has completed some terrible ordeal, he also looks like himself. He's breathing hard. There is no trace of the greenness that overtook him.
The converted nursery is oddly quiet.
Solange doesn't let go of him. Yet. "Adonis...?"
He sighs with relief, gently pressing her back and nodding reassuringly; the crisis is over.
She [lets him go], her expression grim.
He totters across the room, a little unsteady on his feet. Paige is probably too concerned to notice right now but when she has time to reflect, she may recall how once he tried to stand too quickly and had to sit down again in a hurry. Adonis is not a very good patient - like many men with little experience of illness or fatigue. [I'll bet Bleys is a bloody awful patient. :-)] He places a steadying hand on the mantle-piece.
Paige rolls Brooke beneath her, her own breath held, tears welling in her eyes until she feels the girl's breath on her face. "Brooke, it's Mama. Can you hear me honey?"
"Mother? What has happened?" Somehow her speech reminds Paige of Merlin's.
"It's OK, honey, Mama's here," she soothes, tears running down her face.
She reaches from where she is, never releasing her one hand on Brooke and tries to pull Leif to her and ensure the same. If their eyes open she looks for the green. Not Leif's own fresh green of Amber grass, but that Green that had stolen her children.
His eyes are normal, and he looks scared and confused.
"Come here honey," [Paige] sobs, drawing her children to her chest.
The children cling to their mother. Brooke is crying, and Leif is looking around at the carnage and blood. Paige thinks they're in shock.
Brita huffs at Conner as she releases him and smooths the sleeves of his jacket. "Adonis." is all she says although her look says Volumes about similar events in Heather Vale.
Conner rubs his arms where Brita had gripped him. He looks back at Adonis as she does waiting to see what comes next. Conner holds his pointer at the ready, just in case.
"They are returned;" croaks Adonis by the fireplace, "Grandmother is...elsewhere."
Wearing a 'man, I need a drink' expression, he seems surprised to find he's still holding the decanter in his left hand. With half a shrug, he raises it for a swig only to lower it again as his eyes light on Breeze, who is rising to a sitting position, rubbing his head and looking confused.
"Young man!" Adonis' voice is gentle but transfixes the young ranger. "I feel everyone here understands that you have not been entirely in control of your right mind, but you should understand that your recent actions have brought considerable danger, and caused much pain, to those around you," he nods in the direction of Paige and the twins, "...especially to your brother and sister. There are some who may feel you owe a debt in this matter. It is up to you how you resolve this but I would urge you to consider the matter closely."
"What? I. I don't remember..." He, too, looks confused. There's also plenty of blood, which seems to unnerve him.
He squints in to the uplifted decanter. It's a Royal one, large and well over half full, but he wishes it was fuller. Time for that drink.
Paige looks at him in obvious confusion herself, but isn't in the frame of mind to call him on his behavior.
"Excitement is over. Time for damage control and explanations." A simple triage by eye tells him there is nothing to be done for Winter and Ivy. Conner makes a note to get the bodies out of sight before letting servants in here to clean up. The rest were barely in any physical fighting so he starts with his sister, "Let me take a look at you, sister. If you have any wounds I doubt you've noticed them yet. Rage and adrenaline are marvelous things that way."
Brita is not listening. She is taking deep breaths and her focus has shifted entirely to the only remaining Green in the room.
Solange shuffles out her trump deck, still keeping half and eye on the other people in the room. "It would be wise that those who were possessed are medically examined now that their ordeal is over. There may be lingering or after effects."
She concentrates on her trump of Gerard.
"If that's a Trump of someone in Xanadu or Paris, or hells, even Rebma, advise that you've got three who need passage, quickly," Paige decides even as she draws her own Trumps from her pocket.
Solange raises her hand in acknowledgment.
"Damage control and explanation;" echoes Adonis, as he tilts the decanter, "Since I must be about the former, perhaps someone would be so kind as to explain to Pater what has happened here?"
And with that he empties the decanter to the last drop. The aroma of spilt brandy fills the room almost instantly as the amber liquid splashes over his face and down his body, soaking in to the white wool of his tunic. Not one drop goes down his throat, which is probably a first for him; you'd have thought he of all people would have mastered the art of quaffing by now.
Wearing an easy smile, with just the faintest hint of slyness, he tosses the heavy decanter underhand to Brita, the one person in the room with her hands free. "Tell Pater he need blame no one for this but me...*no-one*, especially not himself. Remember!"
Then he looks down as, calmly and deliberately, he places his right foot in the hearth. The flames leap up his leg almost joyfully and in an instant the hem of his tunic crisps with the first flame.
Brita dives past the decanter in an attempt to shove Adonis to the side away from the fire and smother him with her own body.
[Card draw: Trickery - Deceit/Subterfuge]
Solange startles briefly at the sudden movement but keeps her concentration on her trump call.
Paige unwraps her Trumps and shuffles to Martin, but doesn't concentrate. She's shocked and concerned by Adonis's actions. Impatiently she looks at Solange to see if there's an escape there.
Solange feels a familiar presence. "Who is it?," says Gerard.
Conner just watches the whole scene with a pained expression for a fraction of a second. His eyes flick about the area looking for either a convienetly placed tapestry to rip down or failing that rushes to grab the largest cloth object from Paige's quarters, a bedsheet preferrably. He then moves forward ready to beat out the fire on both of them.
Conner finds a hand-woven wool throw. The colors are vivid reds, majestic golds, and dusky oranges fading to deep majestic purples and serene blues. It would do nicely. He turns back to his sister and his fiery cousin, tool in hand.
"It's Solange," she says in answer to her father's question. "Father, there's..." She looks up at the room and suddenly trails off, watching Adonis burn with a morbid fascination.
Adonis is burning fiercely and smells of brandy and forest fires. As parts of his skin crackle and are engulfed in the frames, they turn momentarily scaled before being eaten by the hot fire. He burns more quickly than anyone would expect, like a dead, hollow tree in dry season. He turns to look at his cousins and his eyes are shifting back and forth between green and Green.
By the time Brita reaches him, his legs are collapsing: the fire has leapt from his right leg to his left and is climbing his torso to his chest. It is oddly reminiscent of the sparks of the pattern, except it is consuming Adonis. He holds his arms crossed in front of him, and he closes his eyes.
Brita grabs him and rolls him away, trying to smother the fire, but it seems to be coming from inside of him. The look on his face is serene and he offers no resistance, but nothing Brita can do stops the burning. The heat is intense and Brita feels the transformation of skin to scale to ash happening on every part of him she touches. A small part of her recognizes that she's taking some damage from the flames, as well, and she smells a new source of burning clothing and flesh which is probably her.
As Adonis' body disintegrates, everyone in the room hears, or seems to hear, an enraged, agonized scream that almost deafens them. Solange is able to hold on to her nascent Trump connection with Gerard through it, but not without difficulty.
In a moment, the room is silent and Brita is alone on the floor, holding nothing but ashes, her clothes burning on her back and the rug she lies on smouldering.
Brita sighs. She places both hands on the ashes below her and bows her head. She breaths deeply and says softly "Flowing with Passion; Swift Passage through Life's Waters; Adonis - Daeon." She sighs again and brings forth her Power as Goddess of Pure Waters. "Passing under the Bridge you have Burned, may you wash free of Regrets, cleanse the Torment from your soul, wend your way to Peace,..." she glances at Paige hudled around her children and ends the Blessing softly," and leave no Stain on the shores you have touched from your untimely ebb." Brita lifts her hands and blows gently, freeing the ashes from her hands to dance on the wind.
It was good to have a solid concrete action to focus on during a time of shock. So rather than dwell on the wider effects of Adonis's sacrifice, Conner instead focuses on extringuishing his sister who is apparently so caught up in the moment once more as to not notice her back on fire. The cloth in his hands is swiftly draped over Brita to smother and beat out the flames.
The blanket picks up some char-marks that will never come out, but otherwise there isn't much permanent damage. When Brita comes down from the last of her berzerker high, she'll be in plenty of pain, but for now, she's not feeling it.
Paige pulls the twins closer, shielding them from their father's end. Her heart understood in the end even when her mind hadn't accepted his decision. Tears, perhaps from the ash and smoke, come to her green eyes even after she thinks herself done with crying.
Stunned, Solange stares at the ashes as they float in the air. "Um...Adonis just burnt up. Completely." Gerard can tell she's having problems processing what she's just seen.
Breeze is just sitting there, breathing heavily, looking at the pile of ashes that had been a man who claimed to be his father, not 20 seconds ago.
[Solange] shudders and wrenches herself back to the here and now. Her eyes flick over the room. "There's been an arcane attack here in Amber castle. Five people were...possessed. Two are dead and the other three appear now to be in shock. Brita has burns." Her attention focuses back on her father. "Should I send them through to you?"
Gerard's eyes grow wide. "Yes, at once. I'm in the infirmary." He adds to someone in the room with him, "Clear the table. There's been an attack on Castle Amber and wounded are coming through."
Paige loosens her hold on the children, but doesn't release them. "We're going to go someplace safe, OK?" she explains.
The children cling to her, not speaking. Paige is not the only one whose tears are flowing.
"Paige, bring your children through to Father," Solange calls to her, offering her her hand. "Conner, please help Brita and Breeze through."
Paige nods and helps the kids to their feet, and lays a hand on Solange's shoulder to join the contact, handing the children through to Gerard as soon as he's ready.
"Come sister." Conner said softly. "We are sending the wounded to Gerard and in case you haven't noticed yet, that's you." If she will allow it, Conner will help her to rise and guide to Solange and the waiting Trump contact. Breeze is handled rather less gently by Conner. He gets a firm grip on the shoulder moving him to the contact and through it.
"Are you staying or going Solange?" Conner asks when they are the last two left in the corridor. "One of us should remain to inform those that are still in the castle."
"I'll stay. You go on through and keep an eye on everyone, okay?"
"Thank you. Tell mother and Bleys that I shall call when there is news." Conner graces Solange with a subdued grin and then steps through the contact.
"I'll call back in awhile to see how things are and to pass on any news," Solange tells her father, her thoughts already preoccupied with all the things that need to be done next.
"Solange, be careful," Gerard says, but, perhaps sensing the preoccupation in her mind through the trump contact, doesn't add anything else.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine."
Solange drops the contact. She glances around the room, at the two dead bodies, at the blood, at the...ashes. She closes her eyes.
When she opens them again, she purposefully puts away Gerard's trump and pulls out Julian's. She raises her uncle's trump in front of her face, blocking out the view of the room, and concentrates on it.
Before the image can solidify, Solange hears a clattering of footsteps. Venesch and several armed guards arrive. Venesch looks at Solange.
"Bide a moment," she says, holding up her free hand at him while continuing to concentrate on the trump. She wants to inform Julian about the situation and and give him the opportunity to advise her concerning what to do with Adonis's remains and the two dead rangers before the castle guard and servants come in to clean things up.
Solange reaches out with her mind, searching for her Uncle, trying to bring his image into reality by force of will. It is a difficult task and, ultimately, a fruitless one. Julian is there, but he does not answer.
Venesch and his men stand quietly waiting.
She sighs, troubled, and drops the card to return it to her deck. Solange turns her head to look at Venesch. "The danger appears to have passed. Have the bodies shrouded and their families notified. These ashes..."
She points at the area of the floor where Adonis burned.
"Sweep them into a burial urn and have it brought to me. I will be giving my report to the queen."
Unless he asks questions, Solange will then leave Venesch and his men and head for the last place she saw Vialle.
Venesch orders one man to guard this room, another to help him attend to Lady Solange's orders, and the last to accompany Solange to do her bidding or the Queen's.
Last modified: 11 May 2005